It's hard to believe it's already time to vote for sessions for South by Southwest 2012. Before we know it, the actual conference will be here. Seems like SxSW 2011 just ended. The good folks at Loopt have put together…
You've likely heard by now that Google made a surprise bid today to acquire Motorola's Mobility group for $12.5 billion in an all-cash deal -- its largest to date. There are lots of implications for this deal, and Moto's patent…
From the Friday just-barely NSFW department comes the newest mobile marketing phenomenon -- barcode bikinis. U.K.-based Olympic hopeful volleyball pair Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney (ranked 26th in the world) have posted QR codes on the backs of their bikini…
Today I had the chance to catch up with London-based mobile app and website development outfit Golden Gekko. The firm has lots of top global brands as clients (Jack Daniels, Coca-Cola, Nokia), but has crossed our path by working with…
The appeal of real-time promotions allowing SMBs to add or update a sale or special offer on the fly is fairly apparent. It is a segment that’s been chased after by such players as Google, Yext and others. Add Chalkboard…
We've just confirmed Urbanspoon Biz Dev lead Fred Dimesa for our iPad demo session at next month's DMS conference. One of the reasons this is cool -- besides the fact that we like Urbanspoon -- is that the company just…
Specialized verticals are a major part of the new marketplaces environment. One vertical we like is TeachStreet, a portal that helps consumers find teachers, and then helps sign them up and process payments. Along the same lines is TakeLessons, a…
Online retail spending reached $37.5 billion, up 14 percent from a year ago, according to comScore's latest quarterly study. Highlights from comScore's study include: The 14-percent growth in the quarter was primarily a function of an increase in the number of…
Localmind, a location-based Q&A service, arrived on Android this week, after closing a round of $600,000 in angel funding last month. The app was a hit at SXSW earlier this year but at that time was iPhone only. Localmind leverages…
SocialGuide CEO Sean Casey briefed us today on recent accomplishments and upcoming milestones for his company that focuses on social media activity around television programming running on 170 U.S. networks. The basic idea for users is that in addition to…
Mobile data continue to pelt us. This is a good thing, as ad networks (with promotional intent) release the data they're seeing for ad placement. See, Millennial, JiWire, Jumptap, et al. I usually internalize these data but don't write about…
Mobile marketing company HipCricket has announced it will be acquired by Augme Technologies for $44.5 million. Of that total, $6 million will be cash, the rest stock, in addition to a $27.5 million earnout over the next year. For Augme this…
Internet display and text advertising are great. But nothing really matches video for engagement and open rates. A number of players are specializing in SMB video. A new company, Webshoz (pronounced “Web shows”) is focused on presenting an onscreen “bar”…
Groupon got a flying jump investing in overseas properties that have basically cloned its daily deal concept and set up local operations. International now accounts for 54 percent of Groupon’s revenues, according to the S-1 it filed with the SEC…
Google has acquired Dealmap, a deals aggregator and exchange, and will presumably use it to complement its own sourcing of deals for Google Offers, the daily deal site now in New York, the Bay Area and Portland and coming soon…